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Friday, May 6, 2016

Friday Celebrations & a Visit from Misha Gerrick

It's Friday and that means it's time to Celebrate the Small Things from the past week. The hop is hosted by my buddy Lexa Cain and co-hosted by L.G Keltner at Writing Off the Edge, Tonja Drecker at Kidbits, and Katie at The Cyborg Mom. Visit Lexa's blog here to find out how join in the hop yourself and to see the list of participants.

I'm going to make my list of celebrations short & sweet because I am also welcoming Misha Gerrick to the blog today as part of her tour for her new release.

I'm celebrating:

1. I attended the Mad Anthony Writer's Conference in Hamilton, Ohio last weekend and had a great time. I met up with some members of my SICCO writer's group and enjoyed spending time with them, plus I feel like I learned some things thanks to a great presentation from Jane Friedman.

2. As I mentioned in my IWSG post, I'm working on a new book in my Polar Night series and I'm super excited about it.

3. Game of Thrones is back and, as of the end of last week's episode, so is my favorite character. (I'll leave it at that in case anyone is behind on watching.) All is right in my tv world. :D

And now I'm turning it over to Misha. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Voice

One of my favorite things about Endless
was Nick’s narrative voice. It was just magic from the beginning. I didn’t
need to do anything. He just came alive as I wrote, so often writing his scenes
were the easiest writing I would do all day.

Ryan and Aleria’s voices were a bit more difficult. Ryan, because he’s
more of distant person, who’d built so many walls around himself over the past
few decades that he just doesn’t come across as interesting unless I push him.

Aleria was tricky because… well… she doesn’t know who she is.

That said, the foundations for both were laid in the rough draft phase,
same as with Nick. All I did was to start with whatever the character wanted to
say, and then let the characters do the talking.

As the story progressed, I got more of a feel for who each character was, and
how that influences how they sound. Which meant that by the time edits came
around, it was easier for me to refine each character’s voice.

I know that nailing down voice in a story is seriously difficult, so I
thought I’d share my five tips for managing it.

1) Focus on how the character would
say something. Not you. The character is the one speaking to the reader. Not
the author. If you can remember that, you’re on your way.

2) Listen to your character
even as you write. You’ll start getting a feel for the character’s word
choices, speech patterns and turns of phrase. So that you can go back and
reinforce moments where you slip up during the rough draft.

3) What that character reveals is important. What the character doesn’t reveal to the reader can be even
more so. So get to know that character as well as possible so you know what’s
going on. If you’re familiar with a character, you’ll know the things the
character will never say.

4) Don’t focus so much on making a character sound unique that the
character ends up sounding fake. Some phrases are commonly used between at
least more than half of English speakers everywhere. It would be stupid to make
one character avoid using one of those just because another character used the
same phrase earlier.

5) Careful of letting a character’s hobbies/jobs/interests inform every
description or turn of phrase. Just because someone is a vegetarian doesn’t
mean that they will describe everything in terms of vegetable or fruit colors,
for example. It comes back to point #4. Yes, a character’s life will inform the
way they see and describe things. But often, this difference will be subtle.
Think of yourself and your job. How does it affect your perceptions?

My day-job is exporting fruit and veg. I still don’t see everything in
terms of fruit and veg. But I will pick up quality issues in almost any fresh
produce within seconds of seeing them. Because it’s my job. But I won’t
arbitrarily call a green “lime green” unless the color exactly matched that of
a lime.

Bonus tip: Subtlety goes a long way.

How do you nail down voice in
your story?

About the Book

“First, do no harm.” Blake Ryan swore that oath to become a doctor.
Ironic, given that he spent most of his thousand year life sucking souls out of
other immortals.

Things are different now. Using regular shots of morphine to keep his inner
monster at bay, Ryan has led a quiet life since the Second World War. His
thrills now come from saving lives, not taking them.

Until a plane crash brings Aleria into his hospital. Her life is vibrant. Crack
to predators like him. She’s the exact sort of person they would hunt, and
thanks to a severe case of amnesia, she’s all but defenseless.

Leaving Aleria vulnerable isn’t an option, but protecting her means unleashing
his own inner monster. Which is a problem, because his inner monster wants her
dead most of all.

37 comments:

Don't let everything relate to fruit and vegetables - funny! I'm sure after a long day of work, you don't even want to think about them.Cool you got to hear Jane at the conference.I won't be able to catch up with Game of Thrones until next month, but I have a good idea who you are talking about.

I can't imagine how to write a character with amnesia. Too hard for me! I'm glad you were brave enough to tackle it. My hubby's brother is a produce supplier. He has to be up very early to get the best quality. Poor man hardly sleeps. Congrats on your release, Misha!

Julie - Yay for the happy vibes at the writers' con and for the new story idea! I can't wait to hear more about it! :)

Not letting your character sound fake is essential to making a believable story that readers will be willing to go through. Also one that will more likely get positive reviews. Thanks for popping by Misha. *Wink*

Wow you Julia and Tara Tyler are really getting out of your shells to go conferences and/or book fairs. Congrats and keep going. Yay, write on! I need to start in on Games of Thrones.

So glad you got to go to the conference. I miss attending those things. Congrats on the book! Hope you have a lovely weekend. Off to finish reading Misha's blurb. Lori's CtST @ As the Fates Would Have It

Congratulations, Misha! That sounds like a difficult book to write and a character which would be hard to get right. (I love the cover too!)The writing conference does sounds like fun. Glad you enjoyed, Julie!

Fantastic post on voice, Misha! I, too, find I learn more about the characters and their voices from writing that first draft and then have to add/tweak things in edits to fit them. It's always nice when a character comes out already knowing his/her voice. :)

I think I need to nail those characterization tips to my forehead . . . err, the nearest wall, so I don't forget them. :) I've been struggling with a "new" character whose point of view is different from mine . . . and I'm trying to write in first POV to get closer. Ack!

Julie, I enjoyed reading your CTST list and learning from Misha. I'm not a novelist, but her steps to nailing down voices may help with writing children's literature. This is one of the areas I'd like to write, but I also have a few adult story ideas in storage (my brain). It's nice meeting you today, and I hope if you have time you'll pop over to read my CTST post, here. Have an awesome weekend!

Sounds like good news, Julie. Hope the conference was fun. Misha offered great tips. I really do think you have to spend as much time with your characters as you can - the more you know them, the easier the voice will come.

Baby Moo's Great Escape

About Me

Author of the Polar Night series and The Ghosts of Aquinnah. My first children's book, Baby Moo's Great Escape, is now available! When not writing fiction, I love to write about animals and animal-related issues.